Petrobras announced a further hydrocarbon discovery at the giant pre-salt Libra field in the Santos basin, offshore Brazil. The company said that well 3-BRSA-1310-RJS, in the central portion of the block, identified the presence of hydrocarbons in a low-porosity reservoir. This is the fourth well drilled in the Libra area since exploratory drilling began last August.

The Petrobras-led Libra consortium has said that the first extension well in the Libra area, known as 3-BRSA-1255-RJS (3-RJS-731), has proven the discovery of high-quality oil in the northwest portion of the structure.

Brazil's biggest oil field, Libra, will cost 80 billion dollars to develop, according to a senior executive with France's Total, one of five consortium members participating in the project. Total's vice president of exploration and production for the Americas, Ladislas Paszkiewicz, made the estimate at the Rio Oil & Gas conference, which began Monday and runs through Thursday.

Brazil sold production rights to develop the giant offshore Libra oil area to a consortium led by Brazilian state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA in an auction with a single bid on Monday. The auction in Rio do Janeiro took place amid strict security measures with hundreds of police forces clashing with protestors.

Brazil is limiting Chinese state-controlled oil companies to joint bids to develop its largest offshore oil discovery, amid concerns the players could share data and reduce competition ahead of the 21 October auction, said Brazilian officials.

Brazil’s government is planning to give a boost to state-run oil company Petróleo Brasileiro by financing its participation in the October 21 auction of Libra, the country’s largest-ever oil discovery, the O Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper reported over the weekend.

The Brazilian congress rejected an amendment to an oil-royalty bill that threatened to derail the world's largest-ever sale of rights to develop offshore oil resources scheduled for October 21. The amendment had sought to set the Brazilian government's minimum share of profit oil from the sale of the giant Libra offshore prospect and other fields in Brazil's most productive oil area at 60%.

The Libra deepwater oil field that Brazil plans to auction off Oct 21 will yield minimum output of 1 million barrels of crude per day, the National Petroleum Agency, ANP, said on Friday. That production would be equivalent to half of Brazil's current output of 2 million bpd.